AFGE urges Congress to vote against House rule for 2026 NDAA

AFGE urges Congress to vote against House rule for 2026 NDAA

AFGE is calling on lawmakers to reject the procedural rule and restore the worker protections.

Michele Sandiford

December 9, 2025 8:03 am

< a min read

• The nation’s largest federal employee union is urging Congress to vote against the House rule for the 2026 Defense policy bill. The American Federation of Government Employees said negotiators removed a bipartisan House provision that would have restored collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of Defense Department civilian employees. The union said removing that language means the legislation fails to protect basic rights of workers who maintain ships and aircraft and support service members. AFGE is calling on lawmakers to reject the procedural rule and restore the worker protections before the National Defense Authorization Act moves forward.
• The top Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is asking the Postal Service to ensure service members get holiday packages on time. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said hundreds of holiday care packages sent to troops overseas were returned to sender. About 100 of those care packages sent through the nonprofit Boxes to Boots are still missing in transit. Blumenthal is asking Postmaster General David Steiner to provide guidance to military families and organizations who are encountering similar obstacles and ensure timely delivery of these care packages.
• The Trump administration is trying to reduce the federal government’s real estate footprint. A congressional committee will take a closer look at those efforts on Thursday. A subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hear from the acting head of the General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service. It will also hear from the Government Accountability Office and the Public Buildings Reform Board which has helped GSA identify underutilized federal office space.

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• The Technology Modernization Fund will expire in three days. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program remains on the shelf. Congress chose not to include reauthorization language for either program in the compromise version of the 2026 defense authorization bill released yesterday. House lawmakers pushed to get the TMF extension provision added during conference, but were unsuccessful. Meanwhile lawmakers are still at odds over the future of the SBIR program, which saw its authorization expire on September 30. Both chambers of Congress are expected to vote on the NDAA later this week.
• The President’s Management Agenda is finally out. Eric Ueland, Office of Management and Budget deputy director for management, laid out eight initiatives across three broad categories that are the administration’s key management reform objectives. The priorities include consolidating and standardizing systems, hiring based on skills and merit and finding cost-effective locations for agency buildings. A senior OMB official told Federal News Network that the PMA takes the president’s promises, as well as the administration’s work already underway, and creates a framework to “institutionalize” those end goals.
• A powerful senator is calling for agencies to stop all sole source 8(a) contracts. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the chairwoman of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, told 22 agencies to pause any further 8(a) sole source awards and review all current contracts for potential fraud. In a letter sent to agency leaders yesterday, Ernst said 8(a) sole source contracts are a fraud magnet. Ernst wants to know by December 22 from each agency whether they will suspend the program’s sole source contracts. The letter comes two weeks after Ernst introduced legislation that would suspend all 8(a) sole source contracts until SBA completes its ongoing audit.
• A compromise version of the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act includes several key civilian personnel reforms that could change how the Defense Department hires and manages its civilian workforce. The draft text includes a provision that would allow the Defense Department to promote employees without having to satisfy minimum time-in-grade requirements before being eligible for promotion. The bill would also allow the Defense Department to use skill-based assessments to determine whether applicants are qualified for open positions. In addition, the legislation expands which positions DoD can hire using special cyber authorities, as well as significantly increases the maximum pay DoD can offer for cyber talent.

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